Cusson’s Corner 5.31.08: ROH Take No Prisoners

My name is Jerome Cusson. You might remember me as the guy who reviews all those television shows for the movie zone. However, I’m a huge Ring of Honor fan as well. I’ve substituted for one Ari Berenstein in the past, but this is the first time I’ve ever reviewed a wrestling show. This is not going to be a traditional recap. I’m not a big play-by-play guy. What I am going to do is provide thoughts and analysis on every match. Even my ratings system is wacky as I’ll evaluate every match in two different ways: one for the actual quality and the other as far as how entertaining I was by it. If you’re looking for play-by-play go to Mr. Csonka’s review. For everyone else, let’s get to the show. The show, titled “Take No Prisoners,” sounds something like a Charles Bronson action thriller from the 1970s.

-Your hosts are of course Dave “Q-ball” Prazak and Lenny “Vince Russo’s twin brother” Leonard.

–Tyler Black defeated Delirious with the phoenix splash to gain an ROH championship match later in the show. Claudio Castagnoli and Go Shiozaki were also involved in the match, (10:00)
Thoughts and Analysis: The announcers fail to mention this until later, but the reason these four are even fighting for a shot later on the show is because they each won qualifying matches over the previous two nights in Dover, New Jersey. This was a great way to get the crowd into the show, and if I hadn’t read the spoilers beforehand, I’d have said Go or Claudio were winning for sure. There were a couple of little touches I liked. Three of the four competitors said something to the camera as they were introduced. If I have to tell you who didn’t speak, go back and look at the names. Which one of those four doesn’t belong? The match itself was also non-stop action, with Nigel McGuinness changing things up a bit by joining Prazak and Leonard on commentary. Black’s win was appropriately treated as an upset. I don’t think this was as good as the “Man Up” four-way, but this was about as good of a way to open the show as you could possibly think of.

Onto the negatives. Go Shiozaki makes his ROH Pay-Per-View debut. No real explanation was given to his background or why he’s even wrestling for the company. I would have liked to have heard, like the announcers have mentioned on other DVDs, about Shiozaki wanting to come to the States like KENTA, Marifuji, and Morishima have done in the past. Next, the lighting in the Armory was way too bright and created an odd glare. Finally, Claudio’s orange pants were uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugly.

Match Quality: 3.25/5
Entertainment Value: 3.5/5
Total: 6.75/10

-Video Clips of the previous Pay-Per-View put to music. Age Of The Fall clearly has editors in high places since some of their clips are spliced in. Good thing Gabe and other ROH officials don’t check their own taped show before sending them to the Pay-Per-View distributors. They might notice the Age of the Fall interrupting the show.

–Breaking News: Takeshi Morishima has been suspended from ROH Pay-Per-View for taking out referee Bryce Remsburg. Good explanation.

–Breaking News (sort of I guess): The ROH tag team titles have changed twice since the last Pay-Per-View. Now Jigsaw and Ruckus, who’ve won a whopping two matches together, are getting their second championship match against the NRC. Oh, and props for explaining why Jigsaw all of a sudden doesn’t have a mask anymore. Not.

– Kevin Steen defeated Roderick Strong with the package piledriver. (11:10)
Thoughts and Analysis: Once again, we have a match that’s sort of thrown out there with no real explanation. It’s not that this was a bad match, but it seemed thrown together. And for two borderline main event types, they really needed more time and better backstory. Steen spent much of his time working on Strong’s arm. Strong forgot to sell that leg, so the psychology went nowhere. There were a couple good moments, like Steen mocking Roderick by saying “ROD-ER-ICK” at him before the action got underway. In addition, the package piledriver looked good and the right guy won. Amazing to think Steen went undefeated in singles matches for the first four months of the year.

Match Quality: 2.75/5
Entertainment Value: 3/5
Total: 5.75/10

–The following announcement has been paid for by the New World… ahem…Age of the Fall: Jimmy Jacobs has a group of what I guess are followers of AOTF. This promo is way too preppy and very poorly acted. Thank God the Aries feud and Black’s push finally give this faction focus.

–Jay & Mark Briscoe with Daizee Haze defeated Necro Butcher & Joey Matthews with Lacey after Jay hits Matthews with a Jay-Driller (15:34)
Thoughts and Analysis: ROH tried too hard to have an epic brawl. First of all, it was too early in the show. Second of all, I’ve seen these guys do a lot better. Third of all, the story for this match was better established if anyone had seen Double Feature, night one. On that night, these same two teams (only difference being Black instead of Necro) met in an old school pure wrestling match which AOTF won. This match was the complete opposite as it began in the crowd and was a mess. Speaking of messes, Mark Briscoe getting busted open the way he did was quite disgusting. He wasn’t wearing the proverbial crimson mask, but the right side of his face and ear looked wrong. These guys had a lot of violence early. Then things died. Then they went home with Marc Briscoe doing some exceedingly stupid. He leaps off the scaffolding on the entranceway as Jay finished Matthews with a Jay-Driller. There were also of course unprotected chairshots and the usual no-selling, particularly by Necro. The other negative of this match was the fact that it’s the first time these two teams have never even met on Pay-Per-View despite AOTF beating them up all the way back in Septmeber with this show being televised in late November. I firmly believe that AOTF’s tag title victory should have been on the last Pay-Per-View. Instead, it’s nine months later and the feud is over in real time.

Interesting note of the match: The Briscoes are 6-0 on Pay-Per-View, something to watch out for in the next round of shows.

Match Quality: 2.5/5
Entertainment Value: 2/5
Total: 4.5/10

-Austin Aries… IS PACING.

-Video Package of current WWE and TNA superstars in Ring of Honor. They really need to do a “Best of ROH” Pay-Per-View.

–The Larry Sweeney show: At least the super agent didn’t urge Bobby Dempsey to rape someone this time. Instead, we do get is a set-up for the summer and I assume the rest of the year. Larry Sweeney is going to buy all the contracts of all the ROH superstars and “sell them to Vince.” Adam Pearce, Shane Hagadorn, Brent Albright, and B.J. Whitmer come out. The Hangman Three are no more because they’re selling out to Sweet ‘n’ Sour. Erick Stevens, one pissed off mofo by the looks of things, wants a match since Daniel Puder is being held out by Sweeney. Albright is feeling frisky, so let’s go.

–Brent Albright defeated Erick Stevens with a half-nelson suplex. (7:00)
Thoughts and Analysis: I know why this match happened, but damned if we couldn’t give these seven minutes to the Steen/Strong match or the tag title match. Stevens started out 2008 so strong, and his push has regressed badly. Albright gets a win in an okay match. By my count, this is the third brawling type match, very unusual for a Ring of Honor show.

Match Quality: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 2/5
Total: 4/10

–Rocky Romero & Davey Richards defeated Ruckus & Jigsaw after a spike DR driver (9:45)
Thoughts and Analysis: This match gets off to a fast start. Two things immediately strike me. The Orlando crowd is so much more alive and bigger than Philadelphia. Second, the building looks better lit and slightly more professional. The actual match is just okay, primarily because Ruckus and Jigsaw are not very good teammates. They don’t have a lot of chemistry with each other. To their credit, The VS was a little more crisp in this outing then they were in previous ones. I think Romero has improved leaps and bounds the last couple years. His chemistry with Richards also made them solid champs. Unfortunately, Jigsaw and Ruckus’ inability to have a really competitive match where people believed they could win the tag titles hurts the drama. The enthusiastic Orlando crowd is worth a point alone. Otherwise, this was the weakest of the six ROH tag title matches aired on Pay-Per-View.

Match Quality: 2.75/5
Entertainment Value: 3.5/5
Total: 6.25/10

–Breaking News: B.J. Whitmer, we hardly knew ye. He gets kicked out of ROH courtesy of a Sweet ‘n’ Sour beatdown.

Bryan Danielson defeated Austin Aries with an armbar. (18:34)
Thoughts and Analysis: If you’ve watched Bryan Danielson wrestle and don’t think he’s one of the best wrestlers in the world, I think you’re insane. Yeah, he doesn’t have 10 different funny catchphrases. He’s not 6’10” with a full head of hair and big tanned muscles. He’s a wrestler having great wrestling matches with guys all over the world. He and Austin Aries… let’s just say this wasn’t their first rodeo. These guys have wrestled a ton in ROH and Pro Wrestling Guerrila and it shows. They seemed comfortable with each other throughout, and longtime fans were rewarded by being able to watch them counter each other’s counters. One of the great parts about their three match series last fall was the idea that they had to break out something new to get the victory. Aries introduced his “Horns of Aries” submission move during this time.

This was such a brillitantly crafted match because the psychology paid off. Danielson spent almost the whole match working on Aries’ arm. And what did he win the contest with? A modified version of an armbar. This may not have been as brutally violent as the ladder war or the kind of epic main event that Danielson had with Nigel at “Driven,” but ROH had a four star match in their back pocket and with a main event that could have failed miserably, this was a smart move by Gabe and the gang.

Match Quality: 4.5/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Total: 9.5/10

-Jimmy Jacobs cuts a very Mel Gibson like promo. Remember when he was cutting quality promos that would win awards on this very website? Feels like a long long time ago.

–Nigel McGuinness defeated Tyler Black (22:10)
Thoughts and Analysis: I want to get the negatives out of the way. Tyler Black was acting like a babyface despite the fact that he’s supposed to be a part of one of the top HEEL groups in the company. The other negative is the idiot Philly fans chanting “U.S.A.” I didn’t know I walked into the 1980s.

Okay, that’s out of the way. This was one of the best and most jaw-droppingly great match I’ve seen from ROH in 2008. It wasn’t loaded with MOVEZ!, but it told a great story. And while I know kicking out of finishers has become cliché in this company, I think these two really made it work. You had Black showing heart and seemingly refusing to give up despite the odds being against him. McGuinness, just as Danielson did previously, worked on the arm, but it worked. Black didn’t use his arm for moves and the psychology paid off here too as Black would eventually be forced to tap out. And even though I hated the “U.S.A” chants, the crowd was intensely into this match and provided a special atmosphere. I can’t say this is the match of the year. But I will say, this is for sure better than at least 95% of the matches I’ve seen the last 12 months.

Match Quality: 4.5/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Total: 9.5/10

The Kobashi moment for best moment during the Pay-Per-View: Before this show, Tyler Black was just another one of the members of the roster to becoming a main eventer in one show. WWE fans constantly bitch and moan about new stars not being created. Here you have a company seemingly making new stars on a show-by-show basis. Whatever negative I have to say about this show and the company, Ring of Honor will never hesitate to push someone they have confidence in him. Oh, and there was one great moment in the match that I need to point out.

Black is in the “London Dungeon” for a second time, and just before tapping out, you hear him screaming. What a great sell-job.

The Jeff Hardy moment for worst moment during the Pay-Per-View: Jimmy Jacobs’ promos were ever more annoying than usual

Final Thoughts: This was another great effort from ROH. This company has set such high expectations, and they continue to meet and exceed them. If you are not a Ring of Honor fan, I highly encourage you to check this show out. It has a little bit of everything, with two fantastic main events. The more support this company gets, the closer a television deal or more Pay-Per-Views are. I know a lot of WWE and TNA fans like to make jokes at ROH’s expense because their production quality isn’t the best and they don’t have television and their storylines aren’t the best.

But over 12 hours, ROH has provided quality in-ring action while also introducing the United States to a whole new group of pro wrestlers who don’t need bells and whistles to try and get themselves over. Remember the motto of “Shut up and wrestle” WCW used to have? It’s the one and only thing ROH should copy from them. I’m not someone who’s going to bow at the altar of ROH on every occasion. I’m the first to admit the problems I have with ROH, but despite it all, I am proud to call myself a ROHbot.